The organisation was set up to obtain information on the "disappeared", writes FIONA GARTLAND
THE INDEPENDENT Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains has recovered six bodies since it was established in 1999.
It was set up to obtain information on the location of the remains of “the disappeared”, people who were murdered and secretly buried, chiefly by the Provisional IRA.
Some 16 people disappeared prior to 1998 as a result of the conflict in Northern Ireland, 15 men and one woman.
Six bodies, which may include Charlie Armstrong who disappeared from Crossmaglen in 1981, have been recovered so far by the commission.
In addition, the body of Eugene Simons, who was abducted in January 1981, was discovered by accident in 1984.
The body of Jean McConville, who disappeared from Belfast in December 1972, was found on Shelling Beach, Co Louth, in 2003. Eamon Molloy vanished from Belfast in 1975. His body was left in a coffin in a graveyard in Faughart, Co Louth, on the morning the commission was set up in May 1999.
John McClory also disappeared from Belfast in May 1978 and his body was recovered in 1999 along with the body of Brian McKinney, who disappeared at the same time.
The body of Danny McIlhone, who was killed in July 1981, was recovered in 2008 in the Ballynultagh area of Co Wicklow.
The bodies of nine people remain to be found: Joe Lynskey disappeared from Belfast in the summer of 1972; Séamus Wright and Kevin McKee went missing from Belfast in October 1972; Columba McVeigh disappeared from Tyrone in October 1977; Capt Robert Nairac disappeared from Armagh in May 1977; and Brendan Megraw went missing from Belfast in April 1978.
Two disappearances, that of Peter Wilson, who went missing from Belfast in August 1973, and Gerard Evans, who disappeared from Crossmaglen in May 1979, have not yet been attributed by the commission.
Seamus Ruddy, whose body also remains to be found, went missing from Paris in May 1985.
His disappearance has been attributed to the Irish National Liberation Organisation.
The commission receives its information on the location of the “Disappeared” on a confidential basis. It guarantees that any information given to it will be used solely for the purpose of locating victims’ remains and will not be passed on to other agencies or used in a court of law.
Its operations are governed by the Northern Ireland (Location of Victims’ Remains) Act in the UK and in Ireland by the Criminal Justice (Location of Victims’ Remains) Act, 1999.
There are two commissioners in the organisation, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield in Northern Ireland and Frank Murray in the Republic of Ireland.
Geoff Knuper, a senior ex-policeman from England who had been involved in the search for victims of the Moors murderers, was appointed as an agent of the commission in 2005.
He leads a project team including experts in forensic archaeology, geophysics, imagery analysis and a body-detection dog handler to survey the various grave sites.
The commission has continued its work on suspected grave sites including at Carrickrobbin, Co Louth, Coghalstown, Co Meath, and Orristown, Co Meath.